Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (44)

The nature of the wind element is light and buoyant. When the wind pushes things along, walking and cycling become very fast; when the wind blows, some light objects are carried upward by it. The wind element also has the characteristic of movement: it can make objects unstable and cause them to turn and shift. What is it that enables our body to function? It is because there is the wind nature within the body. Without the wind nature, our limbs could not move at all, nor could we speak.

How is speech produced? When there are initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) and feelings in the mind, we want to speak and express them. Then a stream of wind arises within the body: the wind touches the navel, then moves upward, touching the heart and lungs, then further up to the windpipe and the throat opening, then touches the tongue, teeth, and lips, and after that speech is produced. Without the wind element, speech cannot arise. The wind nature is that of movement, and speech is also movement; without this wind nature, no sound can be uttered. No matter how many thoughts we have in our minds, without the function of wind, our ideas and views cannot be expressed and speech cannot be produced. This shows that there must be a wind nature inside the body; when the wind moves and touches the internal organs, speech is expressed.

Speech is also illusory. Where is each sound of speech stored? There is nowhere it can be stored. After we finish speaking, the words cease—where do they cease to? There is no place of cessation. Thus all dharmas are illusory in this way, utterly unobtainable, with no principle to be argued; from nothing at all they come, and to nothing at all they go. Analyzing and inferring all matters and principles, everything we come into contact with is illusory and unreal in this way. By engaging in much contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and reflection like this, one can realize the emptiness of all dharmas, eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), and attain the first fruit; afterwards, gradually, there will be nothing left that one cannot let go of.